Yeah, once you increase the price of liquid coolers, their price/performance ratio is pretty much the same as air coolers.
But when cheaper liquid coolers are considered, €30 212 has better price/performance ratio than €50 liquid cooler.

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Based on most of the reviews I've seen, the only instance where those mid-range AIOs (such as the Corsair H80) perform significantly better is under extreme circumstances (basically Prime95 + heavy OC). Under all other scenarios, the 212 Evo is only a few degrees warmer, while costing 1/4 as much.

Don't get me wrong, I like watercooling, and those AIOs are pretty neat and look nice. I just can't justify spending over $100 when my $35 212 Evo gets the job done almost as well, while being quieter under most circumstances.

I can't hear a thing on my Corsair H110i, I had to touch it to make sure it was running. Fans drown out any other noise and even that's not that bad. I have my Corsair settings at standard. If I put it on performance then fan speeds ramp up rather loudly, but pump is and should be more or less silent compared to rest of system. Considering I run my i7-5820k at under 45C at load at 4GHz there is no issue unless I wanted to crank it up to 5GHz. But I tuned my system for best noise/performance.

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This. I run my 5820k at 4.2ghz with a Corsair H55 (hardly the best AIO) and as stated before I don't see it break 60C even under the most demanding CPU games. I don't think I've ever heard my pump running.

Sorry but the EVO 212 is freaking massive. Once connected the thing blocks everything underneath it.

This. I run my 5820k at 4.2ghz with a Corsair H55 (hardly the best AIO) and as stated before I don't see it break 60C even under the most demanding CPU games. I don't think I've ever heard my pump running.

Sorry but the EVO 212 is freaking massive. Once connected the thing blocks everything underneath it.

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It is indeed massive. It also costs half as much as the H55 while providing similar/better cooling and noise results. The main advantage of entry-level (and mid-range) AIOs is the size (or lack thereof) around the CPU socket.

I run my i5-6600K at around 4.4GHz, temps are around the 52-55C range under stress tests, while demanding games stay under 50C.

Top air is comparable to top CLCs true, but aesthetics aside, it also blocks off access to almost half of the mobo, and you have to carefully choose your ram to make sure the heatspreader doesn't touch the heatsink, and you could even run into issues with GPUs if the first PCIe slot is too close to the socket and the tower is too massive. But of course air cooling is also safer because there's no liquid to destroy your system.

Top air is comparable to top CLCs true, but aesthetics aside, it also blocks off access to almost half of the mobo, and you have to carefully choose your ram to make sure the heatspreader doesn't touch the heatsink, and you could even run into issues with GPUs if the first PCIe slot is too close to the socket and the tower is too massive. But of course air cooling is also safer because there's no liquid to destroy your system.

Even trivial things like replacing a power supply may require medic afterwards
I sliced my knuckles pretty well on large Noctua when I changed ps on my previous desktop.

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I always found Zalman coolers turned my fingers into Swiss cheese. Thank god I never bought one for myself. I think the BIGGEST pain in the rear cooler I've installed was on my old 970 hexacore i7, I bought the Prolimatech Megahalems rev B. I had to slightly bend my X58A-UD5 Gigabyte mobo to get the backplate and cooler to mount properly. Never again.

I always found Zalman coolers turned my fingers into Swiss cheese. Thank god I never bought one for myself. I think the BIGGEST pain in the rear cooler I've installed was on my old 970 hexacore i7, I bought the Prolimatech Megahalems rev B. I had to slightly bend my X58A-UD5 Gigabyte mobo to get the backplate and cooler to mount properly. Never again.